Credit Card, Changing the Sale from One to Another

Sometimes customers change their minds and want to take a sale off of one credit card and charge it to another credit card. This has to be done in a very specific order to avoid complications.

CHARGE THE NEW CARD FIRST

First, the new credit card is charged. Once that charge is approved, then the original credit card charge is voided (same day) or refunded (any other day). The reason is obvious, that if we credit or void the original charge first and then attempt to charge the new card and it doesn’t go through, then the sale is no longer paid in full.

ALWAYS VOID IF IT’S THE SAME DAY

ALWAYS VOID THE ORIGINAL CHARGE IF IT’S DONE ON THE SAME DAY. There is a separate menu option for VOID on the credit card machine. If we void a charge on the same day that it was charged, then there is no fee charged to us, and we don’t have to charge any fee to the customer.

CHARGE A FEE FOR REFUNDS ON ANY OTHER DAY

For American Express transactions, we recoup the credit card fee when we refund the charge back to the original card. For MasterCard/Visa/Discover, we do not get the credit card fee back when we refund the charge, and we will pay an additional fee when we charge the sale to the new card. Therefore, in the case where a customer wants to credit back a MasterCard/Visa/Discover to use some other credit card (no matter what kind), the customer will have to pay for those fees.

HOW MUCH IS THE FEE?

Currently the fee is 2.6% of the gross sale (including tax). Accounting may update the fee as needed and ask to have this policy revised.